Comments on: What is your comfort zone?

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:45:58 +0000

There is a small difference between being put in a Freeze Dry machine and being …. well, in Canada.

By: 24fps

24fps — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:27:52 +0000

I live on the Canadian prairie, and I always chuckle when people say, “Oh, but it’s a dry cold…” Yes, it’s a dry cold. It is because at -30, when the cold wind has blown over about a thousand miles of SFA to slow it down, all moisture has been shed, and then, when it hits your skin, it will suck all the moisture out of that, too, which will then crystalize and fall at your feet as frost, leaving your skin looking like the frozen peas that have been in the deep freeze too long. 🙂

I don’t like the cold and I cope very well with heat and humidity, even though I have lived in a cold, semi-arid place my entire life. I’ve learned to cope with cold by dressing for it. My older daughter has antifreeze in her veins and does not mind cold at all, my younger daughter is more like me and likes to stay warm.

By: Eric Lund

Eric Lund — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 19:29:35 +0000

As others have pointed out, the humidity is a major factor in how we perceive heat. I grew up in Florida (with AC, of course) and now live in New Hampshire (the office has AC, my house does not). As long as the atmosphere is dry, I can handle temperatures up to the low to mid 90s with little difficulty (as long as I have access to water and shade), but let the dewpoint climb into the upper 60s and my body starts to rebel, even in the morning when it isn’t yet all that hot. The problem I have with our occasional heat waves is not as much the highs (I can find places to get out of the afternoon heat, and temperatures here rarely go above the low 90s) as the fact that it doesn’t cool down at night. Humidity accentuates the cold, too: Fairbanks at -20 doesn’t feel as cold as New Hampshire at 35 and pouring rain.

By: Carol

Carol — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 19:02:55 +0000

Donâ??t foget to mention the women menopausal thingy. All bets are off as far as hot/cold. It may be freezing outside and a hot flash will make one feel they are a stuffed turkey in a 450 degree oven ready to explode. As far as growing up, Californiaâ??s central valley is home for me. However, I did spend two years in Athens, Georgia and have never in my life experienced such suffocating heat as a lowly 90 degree F. temperature will bring. Never knew the real meaning of sweat, til then, either.!

By: Mark P

Mark P — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:51:00 +0000

I grew up in Georgia without AC, and I remember noticing the summer heat only once during a particularly bad heat wave. But now I cannot stand the heat and humidity of Georgia and I look forward to retiring someplace where the summers are less humid. Heat is OK, but not humidity.

The issue of seeing is very interesting. My field involves discrimination of one type or another, and I tend to be fairly aware of that process in the human visual system. Your eyes (actually, of course, your visual system) become tuned to certain things. A friend and his friend once walked over some recreational land near a fairly large city in the Southwest. His friend, who was a pot collector (it was some years ago before that was as frowned upon, not to mention illegal). He spotted pot shards everywhere, but my friend saw none until they were pointed out. I once surprised myself near my home in Georgia by seeing and identifying a broken arrowhead lying on the surface surrounded by many stones of similar color and size. I was not looking for anything except a good place to put my feet as I walked, and it simply jumped out at me. I have no real idea why, since I’m not particularly interested in finding them.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:53:24 +0000

Chelydra: Good question. It is actually more complex than that one sentence allows. First, there are two kinds of snakes: Snakes that you can eat, and snakes that are your totem. They don’t kill their totem snake. Not all Efe have a totem snake, but many do because, IMO, since you must have a totem and it must be an animal and you can’t eat it, you might as well have an animal you either can’t kill (because it is mythical) or a snake because snakes are a pain to cook and clean and tend to have venom.

And, there are enough Efe around (with different totems) that a snake is not guaranteed safety by being a totem.

I could have said “If an Efe man sees an edible animal, it’s as good as dead.” which is similar to a local expression but is of course hyperbole. But it is more true than one might expect. Walking along a path, flushing out a bat or song bird from the bush, and having that animal be whacked with a machete or just grabbed out of the air was not uncommon.

So, to answer your question, an Efe will kill the snake to rid the danger, and/or to eat it, but occasionally skip that if the snake is of a certain species.

It is notable, however, that while there are a lot of snakes, you don’t see a snake in a pot that often.

By: Chelydra

Chelydra — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 04:22:26 +0000

a snake an Efe sees is a dead snake

They kill all snakes as a matter of course, or just venomous ones?

By: Russell

Russell — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 02:13:27 +0000

And I can put up with most anything. Well practiced in the rules of adventure.

By: Russell

Russell — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 02:06:08 +0000

Not at all! I’m eager for you to get me over there on your next grant. Chief math guy, second cook, and backup medical assistant. I’m sure you can fit me in somewhere. And I’ve already had most of my shots.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 01:35:21 +0000

Chickening out?